[Footnote I:  Burnley’s Trinidad.]

Many associated the idea of servitude with labor in the fields, and, abandoning agriculture, took to trade in the towns and villages, which they still pursue.  Some 4,000 remained on the estates, and have never progressed, like their more independent brethren.  The criminal records show a greater proportion of crime among them than among any other class.  Of the others, five-sixths became proprietors of farms from one to five acres each, and 4,500 hire themselves occasionally to the estates every year.

One effect of the unfortunate contentions between capital and labor in the island has been, that no general system of public instruction was introduced till recently; education was entirely neglected:  though now, under the new system, the people will receive much more general instruction, for which purpose $20,000 were appropriated in 1859.

The public morality under such circumstances is of course of a low order.  Out of 136 children born in Port-of-Spain, 100 were illegitimate.  The convictions in the island for felony were 63; for misdemeanor, 865; for debt, 230.

The records of material progress show a much better result.  The sugar cultivation in the last twenty years has nearly doubled, and the land in cane has risen from 15,000 to 29,000 acres.  The production of cocoa has increased, though in a less proportion; while the production and consumption of home necessaries and luxuries have immensely advanced.  Great practical improvements are being made everywhere, such as the substitution of steam-power for cattle and water-power.  The export of sugar,[J] especially since the introduction of Coolie labor, has advanced rapidly.  Before emancipation the highest export was 30,000 hhds., equal to 24,000 hhds. at present weight.  Late export,—­

1854,  27,987  hhds.     1857,  35,523  hhds.
1855,  31,693   "        1858,  37,000   "
1856,  34,411   "        1859,  40,000   "

[Footnote J:  Cochin’s tables give the sugar export of Trinidad as follows:  Under slavery, (1831-34,) 316,338 cwt.; during apprenticeship, (1835-38,) 295,787 cwt.; under free labor, (1839-45,) 292,023 cwt.; in 1846, 353,293 cwt.; in 1847, 393,537 cwt.]

The molasses trade shows a similar increase.  Cocoa, which is entirely a product of negro labor, has advanced from 3,200,000 lbs. before emancipation to 5,200,000 lbs. in 1859.

Leeward Islands. ANTIGUA was almost the first of the British West Indies to emancipate her slaves, and this she had the wisdom to do summarily and at once, without probation or apprenticeship.  The consequences have been most happy.  She has escaped the vexations and heart-burnings of the other colonies, and has established a better relation between employers and employed.  With a small area, a soil not very rich, and a climate not especially adapted to sugar-growing, she has notwithstanding taken a prominent position